The Union Government has introduced Comprehensive Guidelines for Handling Public Grievances to streamline and improve the redressal process.
What is Public Grievance?
Public Grievance’ refers to the complaints, concerns, or dissatisfaction expressed by citizens regarding the functioning of public services, government policies, or administrative actions. It represents the grievances and grievances of the general public, highlighting their expectations of efficient and accountable governance.
Key features of New Guidelines:
Unified Platform: CPGRAMS (pgportal.gov.in) for all grievances.
Nodal Officers: Appointed in each Ministry/Department for efficient grievance management.
Grievance Cells: Dedicated cells in every Ministry/Department with knowledgeable staff.
Timely Redressal: Grievances to be resolved within 21 days; interim replies for longer cases.
Escalation Process: Appellate officers for further review.
Feedback Mechanism: SMS and email updates, with appeal options for dissatisfied citizens.
AI Analysis: Feedback is analyzed using AI tools for improvements.
Monthly Index: Assessment index for ranking Ministries/Departments.
Training: Capacity building for grievance officers via state Administrative Training Institutes.
Need Of Grievance Redressal
Accountability: Ensures the government is answerable and transparent.
Citizen Empowerment: Allows citizens to voice concerns and influence governance.
Service Improvement: Identifies and corrects flaws in public services.
Trust Building: Enhances public confidence in government actions.
Participatory Governance: Encourages citizen involvement in decision-making, e.g., Mahila Samakhya’s role in India.
Public grievance is a critical aspect of a democratic society as it allows citizens to voice their concerns, seek redressal for grievances, and hold the government and other institutions accountable.
It promotes transparency, fairness, and inclusivity in governance.
Additional Information
About CPGRAMS
It’s a common open platform for registration of complaints by the citizens on any issue against any public authority in the Central Government or States/ UT.
Genesis: By the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in 2007.
Achievements:
CPGRAMS portal has redressed nearly 60 lakh Public Grievances in period 2022-2024.
Timelines for effective grievance redressal have been reduced to 21 from 30 days.
Earlier in 2022, Government implemented 10-step reforms of CPGRAMS e.g. Universalization of CPGRAMS 7.0; Automatic flagging of urgent grievances, leveraging Al/ML, etc.